> Pictured is a young physician by the name of Dr. Starner Jones. His short two-paragraph letter to the White House accurately puts the blame on a "Culture Crisis" instead of a "Health Care Crisis". It's worth a quick read: Dear Mr. President: During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone. While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer. And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture", a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me". Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear. Respectfully, STARNER JONES, MD  

Right on doc! 

i 2nd that!! 

You think we might be able to get him to run for political office? And are there enough like him with plain old common sense to fill all the positions needed to get our country back to the basics on which it was founded? I have a dream..... 

He nailed it!! 

That is nice on the surface. I have to reinforce that some people are in debt over their head due to exhorbitant medical fees and bills (Vamp) not by their own volition. Example : My grown 25 year old son went into the Air Force at age 19. He began having chest pains that increased in severity, fainting spells and vomiting. After some tests came back he was diagnosed as having Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome. They did surgery on him at Creighton University in Omaha. The surgery ( catheter radiofrequency ablation ) was covered by the military which is paid by our tax dollars. I shudder to think how much it would have cost him in the public sector. The doctor said it was a congenital defect, meaning he was born with it. Had he been in Iraq or Afghanistan during that time his chances of sudden cardiac death would have been higher since the medical care on the battleground and in the CASH units is not ready to handle this sort of thing. He was at the right place at the right time. 

Your son is no doubt an honorable young man ...he is serving his country and not a slacker baby-daddy sucking off his baby-momma and her free welfare housing and income. I have NO SYMPATHY for lazy people that REFUSE to do what it takes in life to be self supportive. I worked in a dental clinic in NY that was 98% welfare. Crowns were not covered for a dead tooth----only extractions. These welfare people 5 times out of 10 would manage to find hundreds of dollars to pay for a gold crown. 

The only thing I would have to say is....did anyone ever stop to think that some of what this person had on could have been gifts?? I have had tattoos as a gift. I have had shoes as a gift. Did this Dr. look to see if this person had been working and for some reason been laid off and now has medicade? See....things cant always be taken at face value. While I do agree with his point....unless this was a regular patient of his, he wouldn't really know the PERSON, just what is written down. 

not a slacker baby-daddy sucking off his baby-momma and her free welfare housing and income. OMG what is the deal not everyone on welfare or what have you is this way why must everyone judge before they know the facts....yes there are some who abuse it but those that DONT get thrown into this category and its just disgusting how clueless some people can be. Just remember that person you are judging 2day and looking down upon and assuming everything but the truth could be the person you are looking up to tomorrow! 

I think the doctor has probably seen more than one person that fits this description - when you see it day in and day out, you do tend to form judgments. Go sit in the local emergency room one night from about dark until 3 in the morning. 90% of the people sitting there should not be there - they are not "emergencies". I was there about 6 months ago with my daughter (who had something stuck in her throat and could not swallow) and we had to wait for several hours for her to be seen. The majority of the people sitting there were hacking up a lung ... they had a cold or bronchitis. Sorry, that's not an emergency in my book unless you CANNOT BREATHE. Several of them kept going outside to smoke a cigarette while they were waiting. And although I don't know their circumstances, my bet is that most of them were medicaid people who go to the EMERGENCY room because it's a sure bet the hospital will accept medicaid and not all doctors will. 

Vamp, "OMG what is the deal not everyone on welfare or what have you is this way why must everyone judge before they know the facts...." You are correct---not everyone on welfare permits them selves to be taken advantage of like that. Myself?...when I was young and on welfare I never had some looser moocher around my home. However---having experienced living in a govt. subsidized apartment complex MANY of the apartments had "baby daddies" hanging around that were not supposed to be living there...eating food they were not paying for. 

I was there about 6 months ago with my daughter (who had something stuck in her throat and could not swallow) and we had to wait for several hours for her to be seen. Fifteen E.R. Secrets Secrets the E.R. Staff Won't Tell You More Info 

I HAVE seen these ppl day in and day out. I worked medical for 4 years and A LOT of my patients were on assistance. And yes....some of them had some WAY awesome nice stuff, but.....so did I when had to use assistance at one time. I had my nice stuff BEFORE my husband got laid of a few years ago. HA HA HA....that persons "gold tooth" was prolly just a fake piece!! ha ha ha ha 

I was there about 6 months ago with my daughter (who had something stuck in her throat and could not swallow) and we had to wait for several hours for her to be seen. Yeah, and then once she finally got into see the doctor, they sent her from Cape Fear to New Hanover. Fortunately, once we got to NH at about 3 am, there wasn't anyone waiting so it didn't take too long. Then we just had to wait for an endoscopy team to get there to take care of the problem. And several years ago, she (my daughter) was in a car accident and went to CF by ambulance. I drove out after the police got done at the scene and her vehicle had been towed. When I got to CF, she was the only person in the ER and still hadn't been seen by the doctor. It was about another hour after that before she was seen by anyone, and I never saw another patient the whole time she was there. She ended up having a broken wrist, which I know is not life threatening, but I couldn't see any reason she had to wait so long to see a doctor unless he was on his dinner break!